xAd, a location-based mobile ad technology provider, raised $42.5 million in a series E round and acquired the maker of a popular weather app called WeatherBug.

xAd said WeatherBug’s data infrastructure is built from “one of the largest IoT networks, across ten thousand private weather stations” and believes the deal will expand its own mobile user visibility to 50 million users, many of whom have agreed to share their location data.

In addition, xAd said it will be able to build deeper data sets to predict patterns and trends for marketers and allow businesses to plan for user behaviours brought on by the real-time nature of weather and other location factors.

According to xAd CEO Dipanshu Sharma. “We are driving the future of artificial intelligence by combining data sets that can not only capture the most accurate consumer behaviour but also predict where they will go next.”

xAd said weather has also been shown to have an immediate and measurable impact on sales, especially for retailers.

WeatherBug sees 20 million unique users per month and its portfolio includes apps for mobile, desktop and smartwatches as well as the firm’s connected TV assets.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It is a rival to the Weather Channel app from The Weather Company, which IBM bought earlier in the year.

Funding
Meanwhile, the new funds will be used to accelerate xAd’s commitment to use location intelligence “for the betterment of society, not just to help businesses improve sales.”

For example, xAd’s Location for Good initiative users “the power of location” to help recover abducted children, provide emergency shelter supplies, create job training programmes and promote gun safety.

The company has also hired Serge Matta, former CEO at comScore, as president of global sales and marketing.

According to Sharma. “Serge has done it before, he has helped take a small company to a global brand. We are excited to have him help us chart the path forward, together with a team very passionate about location intelligence.”

The round was led by Eminence Capital and joined by W Capital and existing investors IVP and Emergence Capital.